Issues

New calculations of iron’s elasticity at the temperatures and pressures of Earth’s inner core show that the directional dependence of sound waves in the crystals is larger than expected.

Must we really invoke a supernova midwife to explain why the newborn Solar System harbored so much short-lived radioactivity? Maybe not.

The debate over Yucca Mountain has focused mainly on safety concerns thousands of years in the future. The 11 September terrorist attacks are changing the debate and making safety issues more immediate.

Want your grandchildren to know how you built that satellite? Measured salinity and other properties of the world’s oceans? Discovered the top quark or conducted some other major collaborative project? If so, start thinking now about saving records, says a new report by AlP’s Center for History of Physics.

If physics is to flourish at the threshold of the 21st century, the physics community must respond to the needs of a rapidly changing society.

The venerable field of gaseous electronics underlies the understanding of a lightning-like phenomenon of spectacular extent, shape, and color.

Grain boundaries in high-temperature superconductors illustrate the interplay of physics, materials science, and applications in complex materials.